Arrested: ‘2119’ neo-Nazi gang collaborator

Police arrested Frankie Rizzello, an associate of the neo-Nazi "2119 Blood and Soil Crew," which was the subject of a recent Raw Story investigation, and charged him with two felony counts related to antisemitic vandalism.

Rizzello, a 20-year-old resident of Chesterfield, Mo., was arrested on Sunday for “property damage motivated by discrimination.” He made his first appearance in St. Louis County Circuit Court on Monday, according to Missouri court records.

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As previously reported by KSDK 5 On Your Side and the Anti-Defamation League, Rizzello is accused of spray-painting the name of his Nazi crew on the exterior walls of a church and an Asian restaurant near Washington University in University City, Mo. The criminal complaint alleges that the attacks were motivated by discrimination grounded in the church’s religion and the restaurant owner’s race.

An affidavit supporting charges against Rizzello also alleges that “when police initially attempted to approach the defendant, he armed himself with a rifle and searched the internet for the penalty for killing a police officer.” Authorities also allege that Rizzello “posted electronic message threatening individuals living in his apartment complex based on race, religion and sexual preference.”

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Rizzello told an officer investigating the vandalism that his group is part of the “white nationalism movement and stated that he does not like ‘blacks’ or ‘Jews',” according to the criminal complaint.

Rizzello could not be reached for comment by Raw Story, and no attorney is listed in his public case file. A GoFundMe set up in Rizzello’s name seeks to raise money so that he can hire a lawyer.

Rizzello’s bond is set at $250,000, and a bond review hearing is scheduled for March 18. The University City police officer who investigated the alleged crimes provided a sworn statement that his arrest was “necessary to ensure the safety of the community based on the nature of the offenses.”

‘Curb stomped’

According to the criminal complaint, the two incidents took place at some point between Jan. 1, 2023, and Oct. 11, 2023. The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism uncovered Rizzello’s identity as the administrator of the racist “NS Hooligans” Telegram channel in October, according to the anti-hate group.

“NS” stands for “national socialist,” or Nazi.

The ADL turned the information about Rizzello and his channel, which documented and celebrated acts of antisemitic vandalism in the St. Louis area, to law enforcement.

A meme posted in the channel described NS Hooligans’ commitment to extremism by showing a meter with the needle hovering between “shenanigans” and “terrorism.” In this regard, NS Hooligans made common cause with 2119, a national network whose members commit vandalism targeting Jews and other marginalized groups while espousing virulent hate and flirting with terrorism.

Aiden Cuevas, a member of 2119’s national leadership cadre, joined the NS Hooligans Telegram chat in September 2023, according to a review by Raw Story at the time. The review shows at least three additional exchanges between Cuevas and the administrator of the NS Hooligans channel the following month.

Raw Story’s three-partseries unmasked 2119 as a teenage neo-Nazi network organized on the network that encouraged members across the United States to commit acts of vandalism targeting Jews, African Americans and LGBTQ+ people, document their crimes and use the footage to create propaganda videos for recruitment purposes.

The NS Hooligans channel frequently invoked threats of violence, including a boast in September 2023 that the administrator “almost killed a lady today” alongside a photo of a woman posting a flier on a lamppost. In other posts, the administrator threatened to carry out a knife attack on African-American homeless people. The administrator also threatened that if he discovered who was posting fliers calling attention to Jews taken hostage during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, “they’re getting f---ing curb stomped.”

In another post, the administrator mocked MAGA Trump supporters, while sharing photos of white supremacist mass shooters as an example of the kind of “extremist” they should be.

One post, shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, declared that it was “official attack a Jew day.”